Shadowing Practice: I Was Late and Lost My Best Friend Forever (ACTUALLY HAPPENED REUPLOAD) - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Hey, I'm Jenny, and I feel helpless, really.
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Hey, I'm Jenny, and I feel helpless, really.
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I mean, most things in my life are fine.
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I have a great family, awesome friends, and amazing dog.
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There's just one major problem.
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I am late for everything.
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I know the only one to blame for it is myself, but I honestly don't know what to do.
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So it's never a problem when you're a kid.
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Your parents take you places and back home.
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At least it has been like this with me.
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But the good thing is that my mom and dad have always valued my independence, and I love it.
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When I hear my friends talk about their parents controlling them all the time, I can't relate at all.
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My parents care for me, but at the same time, they let me make my own decisions and choices so that I learn to control my life.
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And you know what?
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I guess it works.
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I'm 16 now, and I think I learned to figure out a lot of stuff on my own.
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So moving to college, for example, won't be a huge problem for me.
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The only thing that I constantly fail at is getting to places on time.
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I don't think I can remember when was the last time I managed to catch our school bus, so I usually have to take the public one.
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More than that, I don't really remember the time I was walking to the bus stop as I'm running all the time.
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Well, that's not the worst part.
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I mean, it's not even the bad part.
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Problems start when I get to school.
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Different teachers react to students being late in a different way, as you guys know.
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But the worst happens on Wednesdays when our first class is chemistry.
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Our chemistry teacher, Mrs. Rodney, goes just crazy when someone's even a minute late to her class.
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So imagine being yelled at every time you come in after the bell.
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I still know it's all my fault, but a couple of times, she just refused to let me in and doubled my homework for the next week.
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I guess that's a bit too much.
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She says I'm being disrespectful and rude, but I never mean anything like that.
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In fact, I try really hard to make it on time.
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Once, we had a drama project, and actually, I've been acting quite a lot since I was a kid, so I knew I was the most experienced actress in our group, so I was quite sure our teacher was gonna give me the main part.
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And he was, but guess what?
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I was half an hour late for our first class of the year, and he gave the main role to another girl.
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And when this was happening, I was chatting to my friends in the schoolyard, not even thinking the class had started.
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My new habit was getting out of hand.
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I've tried a lot of different ways to fix this.
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First of all, I tried to understand what's wrong with me.
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When do I lose so much time, I thought.
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And I figured out that it's a couple of minutes here, a couple of minutes there, and you're running late already.
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No matter how early I wake up, I still manage to lose all the time I have.
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And it's not only about mornings and being late for school.
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Every time my friends and I go out, I am super late.
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If we're going to the movies, you can be sure I'll be awkwardly sneaking between the rows 15 minutes into the film.
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I even think my friends don't invite me as often as they used to because they don't want to be waiting again.
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But the worst part about this situation is that this problem gets more and more serious.
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I think it happens like this quite often.
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You start with being a couple of minutes late.
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Then it's 5, 10, 20, and then you find yourself leaving your house the very minute you're supposed to enter the class.
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Ouch.
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The worst thing happened about a month ago.
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My friend Hannah and her family were moving to another state.
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We used to hang out a lot with Hannah and two of our friends, Jenny and Mike.
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So the three of us decided to see Hannah off at the airport.
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We made a huge poster with our pictures and wishes because, well, no one knows when we'll see her again.
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I set my alarm clock early in the morning, and I actually woke up, had my breakfast, and then this thing happened again.
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In a blink of an eye, I found myself running late to the bus stop.
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Then the bus got stuck in traffic, and I lost 15 more minutes.
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Jenny texted me asking where I was, but I was too embarrassed to answer, and I thought I'd make it.
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Then I couldn't find the right entrance at the airport, then the security check, and then...
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I found Jenny and Mike standing in the departure zone with Hannah and her parents gone.
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I didn't make it.
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I was late again.
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I talked to Hannah after that, and she said it was fine, but I knew it wasn't.
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I might not get to see one of my best friends in years, and I missed my chance to say goodbye.
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It was devastating, but at least there was something useful to it as I finally realized that this problem is just destroying my life.
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I'm really working on it now.
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The thing I recently learned is that if you want control over your life, you need to get stuff in order.
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Not just time management, but everything.
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Also, I'm thinking of getting a summer job when the school year ends to earn some money to visit Hannah.
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Hope I don't get fired because of being late all the time.
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If you have any advice for me, please share it in the comments.
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And I guess you better pause the video now and get to stuff you were planning
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Why practice speaking with this video?

This video features Jenny discussing her struggles with punctuality and its ramifications, making it an engaging and relatable context for English speaking practice. Such personal stories help learners connect emotionally, enhancing their motivation to speak. By practicing with videos like these, students can improve their fluency, pronunciation, and comprehension skills in a meaningful way.

The story highlights real-life situations where speaking English can be beneficial. From expressing personal feelings about lateness to describing interactions with teachers and friends, learners can gain confidence in using everyday vocabulary and expressions. Utilizing a shadowing app can be particularly effective here; by mimicking Jenny’s speech patterns, learners can enhance their speaking abilities and grasp the nuances of conversational English.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Jenny's narrative includes several key grammatical structures and expressions which learners can adopt:

  • Present Continuous Tense: "I am late for everything." This structure is often used to describe current habits or ongoing actions and is essential for articulating personal experiences.
  • Conditional Statements: "If we're going to the movies, you can be sure..." Conditional sentences help convey possibilities and hypothetical situations, crucial for engaging conversations.
  • Expressions of Emotion: Phrases like "I feel helpless" or "I guess that's a bit too much" allow learners to articulate feelings, enhancing emotional expression in English.

Incorporating these structures into your learn English with YouTube practice can deepen your understanding and usage of the language.

Common Pronunciation Traps

One aspect learners should focus on are the pronunciation challenges present in Jenny's speech:

  • Word Stress: Words such as "chemistry" and "experienced" can be difficult. Emphasizing the correct syllable is crucial for clarity.
  • Linking Sounds: Notice how Jenny links her phrases, for example, "what's wrong with me?" The smooth flow of words can make spoken English sound more natural.
  • Intonation Patterns: Observing Jenny's intonation when expressing frustration or excitement can help learners understand how emotion affects speech in English.

Practicing these pronunciation elements through a shadow speak technique not only improves articulation but can also enhance overall communication skills.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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